Titanium Minerals (Ilmenite, Rutile & Titanium Slag)

Sulphate and chloride ilmenite, natural and synthetic rutile, leucoxene and slag by TiO₂ content

Titanium feedstocks under HS 2614.00 are sold on one number first, TiO₂, and on the impurities that decide which process can use them. The mineral-sands consultant TZMI classes ilmenite at 45–58% TiO₂ as sulphate ilmenite and at 58–65% as chloride ilmenite. Sulphate-route pigment plants digest ilmenite and sulphate slag in acid; chloride-route plants run fluidised-bed chlorinators that need high-TiO₂ feed such as chloride slag (around 85% TiO₂), synthetic rutile (above 90%) and natural rutile (90% and above). Leucoxene is ilmenite that groundwater has naturally leached of iron, which raises its TiO₂, and it goes to chloride pigment and to synthetic rutile kilns. Calcium and magnesium are policed hardest on chloride feed, because their chlorides boil high and clog the bed and the ducting; a common limit is CaO plus MgO not above 1.2%, or CaO not above 0.2% and MgO not above 1.0%. Rock ilmenite differs again: the Tellnes mine in Norway produces about 500,000 MT a year of concentrate at 44–45% TiO₂ for sulphate plants. Sizing is set by the placer or the mill, moisture is stated on the certificate, and rutile also sells in bags to welding-electrode and titanium-sponge buyers.

UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations put HS 2614.00 at USD 1.96 billion across the reporters in the pull, led by South Africa (30.2%), Mozambique (17.8%), Senegal (8.2%), Madagascar (8.1%), Kenya (5.2%), Australia (4.6%) and India (3.4%). Supply is moving: Kenmare's Moma mine in Mozambique produced 842,300 MT of ilmenite in 2025, Base Titanium ended mining at Kwale in Kenya in 2025 after its reserves ran out, and QMM in Madagascar suspended operations from November 2025 to January 2026 while Rio Tinto reviews its titanium business. Indian beach-sand minerals, including ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and zircon, are exported through Indian Rare Earths Limited as the canalising state trading enterprise, so an Indian parcel carries that route or it does not ship. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers titanium minerals between producers and trader allocations on one side and pigment, slag, welding-flux and ferro-titanium plants on the other, in bulk vessel lots or 1–1.5 MT jumbo bags in containers, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Offers stand against an SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek analysis of TiO₂, Fe, CaO, MgO, Cr₂O₃, P₂O₅, U+Th and size, with a certificate of origin and a safety data sheet; Fastmarkets publishes monthly reference assessments for ilmenite concentrate 47–49% TiO₂ cif China and rutile 95% TiO₂ min fob Australia. Send the grade, the process route and the discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.